HaloMass Effect: A New War
by WildCard3323
Summary: Humanity is in turmoil, locked within the vicious civil war known as the Insurrection. With the CMA and UNSC forces at their limit trying to quell the insurgency, will they have the strength to fight back against a new enemy, one from beyond the stars? That answer is up for debate, though if anyone of humanity's soldiers have anything to say about it, that answer will be yes.
1. Prologue

**_Prologue:_**

 _"Humanity. We're a fairly arrogant species, in all honesty. A violent, vengeful one, that is far too obsessed with killing each other in various ways. In fact, we literally invent new things to do just that literally every day, whether its a new device, or simply a new tactic. And not only are we too busy slaughtering each other in the hundreds, thousands, or even millions, depending on the day, we were also arrogant enough to think ourselves the superior force in the galaxy. Maybe we could be, but with our projections on Colonial stability, along with these new bastards that showed up, the UEG, even with the UNSC, CMA, and even ONI, are too overstretched. I know you approved Halsey's project, Margaret, and I've seen all the figures on it. The kids, the money, the dead trainers, all of it. So I expect you to give me a chance with N-7. Or I'll leak all the data I have on SPARTAN II right now. And I know you hate threats, so I'm not making one. This is a promise. Besides...with the way things are going, you are going to need me. We both are smart enough to see that."_ **-Lieutenant Natalie Sarrow, ONI Section Three**

 **UNSC Charon class Frigate _Force Of Will,_ Shanxi System, UNSC Outer Colonies, April 20th, 2525**

"Commander, we're exiting slipspace in 5...4...3...2...1. Entering normal space now."

A moment later, Commander Raina Sanders felt like puking, the frigate transitioning back from the strange dimensions of slipspace. Still, she made an effort to shake off her disorientation and mutter "Status report, Lieutenant", in a quiet voice. Fortunately, the man heard her.

"Weapons systems are ready, hull is at 100% integrity, and most of the crew are reporting no ill effects from the jump. Our Pelicans are primed for launch as well." Lieutenant Winters was her XO aboard the frigate, and the only member of her bridge crew, besides herself, to have ever seen actual combat. The two had both seen action above the world of Scyllion, their destroyer engaging a captured Innie frigate and several freighters. They had won, but at the cost of the ship being crippled and the CO killed. So the two had both received promotions and were assigned to this ship...just before it was sent off on a reconnaissance mission.

The colony of Shanxi had went dark several days prior, and as the closest ship, they had been told to go investigate the suspected Insurrectionist activity. They could have used the Relays to get there faster, but HIGHCOM wanted them to do a slipspace jump, to prevent an ambush from occurring at the relay. So here they were, a day behind behind schedule. And that meant they had to get a move on.

"Helm, take us into an orbit around the planet. And Ops, try to contact the people down on the surface. Particularly the militia HQ and the planetary reactor complex."

"Yes, ma'am." Winters comments as he starts working on the communications, while the Ensign in charge of piloting the ship, also starts working, doing as instructed. The almost 500 meter long human ship begins moving, around a minute later achieving the desired orbit and passing the planet's moon...revealing five unknown ships. And the wreckage of a pair of UNSC Mako class corvettes orbiting the planet as well. One of the unknown corvettes was docked with the station at the top of the world's orbital elevator. The rest were heading for the Force of Will.

Winters' voice almost surprises her as he speaks up. "Comm from the reactor complex. Do you want me to patch it through?"

Her weapons officer also starts talking. "Five enemy corvettes, one of which is docked onto the station, but seems to be detaching now. And...enemy frigate, just showing up on sensors. I have a firing solution for the MAC, as well as some for Archer missiles."

Raina sighs as she sees an unknown frigate somehow...warps into position at the center of the corvette group. "Patch it through. And launch some Pelicans to reinforce the ground. Also, target unknown frigate with the MAC, and arm a Shiva."

Her crewmen nod, and moments later a male voice fills the bridge. _"Allied Vessel, this is Sergeant Xavier of the CMA militia on the planet. We need reinforcements down here. We were forced to abandon the training center, along with most of this godforsaken planet's cities. I only have two understrength militia companies, a fireteam of marines, and a few 'Hogs. The enemy has air units, as well as tanks. And these alien bastards also seem to have energy shields for their infantry. We're fucked down here unless you send help."_

"Sergeant, we're only a frigate. But I sent another company of marines, and some armor. The ETA is an hour, assuming they aren't intercepted." Raina responds quickly, keeping an eye on the enemy corvettes, one of which seemed to be approaching her dropships. "Weapons officer, shift MAC strike to that corvette. but don't fire until I give the order."

 _"A Goddamn half hour is too long, we need men down here now."_ He replies, before the sound of rifle fire can be heard in the background.

"I understand. I'll deploy ODSTs, who should be there in twenty. Now, I need to focus on space." She cuts the comm before he can reply, feeling the deck vibrate a bit as a dozen pods are launched towards the planet. "And ensign, prepare to fire."

Her subordinate nods, their hand resting on the button to fire the weapon. All of them watch as the alien ship gets closer, and closer to the dropships. "Now?" They ask nervously.

"Hold it.." Raina says quietly, letting the corvette get until its less than a kilometer from the dropships. "Fire!"

The ship vibrates before the deck violently shakes, the sound being emitted sounding a bit like if someone hit a church bell with a sledgehammer, expect more than twice as loud. Not expecting the attack, the smaller ship doesn't evade as an ultra-dense depleted uranium slug, weighing six hundred tons, leaps from the barrel of the frigate, and in a yellow streak collides with the alien vessel. It doesn't stand a chance, its kinetic barriers trying to repel the round, though they're shattered in a instant, the frigate also being shattered by the massive round colliding with it.

The enemy ships sit dead in space for a few seconds, almost seeming surprised, before they suddenly accelerate, the Charon class quickly trying to reorient itself to face its new attackers. It doesn't quite get the chance, the enemy corvettes all beginning to pound the ship with low-grade weaponry. While the enemy ships swarm the UNSC frigate, distracting its point defenses, the larger alien ship maneuvers to get a line of fire with its main weapons, which were fairly light mass accelerators, though much heavier than the guns on the corvettes.

Aboard the bridge of the human warship, all of the crew have strapped themselves in, to prevent being sent flying by the constant, violent impacts of the alien weaponry. Suddenly, the ship shudders much more than previously as the enemy frigate opens fire. Raina's head snaps back and hits her chair, her groaning quietly as her ship is repeatedly shaken around by its larger guns. "How much damage did that do?"

"Commander, starboard engine pod has been sheared off by that gun's repeated strikes, and our hull has failed in many places from those corvettes' weaponry. Our reactor may soon go critical." Her XO comments, glancing over at the woman.

"Shiva is primed for launch, Ma'am. And I can fire off the Archers at any time." Her weapons officer cuts the commander off before she can respond.

She sighs, before clearing her throat. "Fire off missile pods 1-32, target the surrounding corvettes, with eight pods targeting each ship. Fire the rest at that enemy frigate, along with our Shiva."

"Eighteen pods for one ship? And a shiva?...Yes ma'am." The officer does as ordered, the deck thumping repeatedly as 1501 missiles are launched from the ship at once. The results end similarly to what one would expect, since what she had just ordered was overkill by almost all standards. The second the missiles are launched, the enemy corvettes open fire with a type of laser defense system, stopping about a third of them in the seconds following the launch. Still, while impressive, the closest pair alien ships are consumed in fire, their shielding failing soon after, though the missiles continue pounding the vessels even after they're destroyed. The next to see the wrath of the UNSC is another corvette, though its further distance allows it to shoot down even more missiles. Though rather than be hit with the missiles, it ignites with a fire coming from within, the ship self destructing. This actually is a huge favor for the last surviving corvette, as the blast actually detonates all of the missiles targeting it, as well as all but fifteen of the missiles targeting the survivor.

Those miss as well, when the small ship jumps into FTL, emerging around two kilometers from their larger ally. The two ships then open fire together at the roughly five hundred missiles aimed at them. They take out over half of the projectiles, though seeing the hopelessness of continuing to fire, the enemy frigate accelerates into the missile swarm and detonates. What they had failed to take into account, though, is the Shiva within said swarm of Archers. It is detonated as well, and then ten kilometers of empty space between it and the alien frigate do little to help the ship as its kinetic barriers fry instantly, the nuclear inferno vaporizing the alien metals, along with the bodies of the alien crew aboard that ship.

The UNSC frigate wasn't exactly in good condition, though, the warship crippled and nearly out of ordinance. Add that to the fact that it would soon be pulled into the world's gravity well, and Raina knew that things were bad. So she did the only thing she could do. "Alright people, we might have won this round, but we're still royally screwed if we don't abandon ship. Winters, set the reactor to self-destruct in five minutes. Everyone else, lets get off of this ship. Now."

She presses a button on a nearby console, the lighting turning red and alarms blaring. All around the ship, the surviving crew were scrambling to the escape pods, with the exception of her bridge crew. She sighs. "Ensigns, when I give an order, follow it. Me and Winters will be right behind you all. As soon as I make sure no one gets left behind."

The lower ranking men and women look at their CO for a few seconds, before reluctantly walking out the door, leaving only her and her XO. He smiles slightly, looking at Raina. "Well, the reactor's going to go critical in five. So want to take one last walk around the ship?"

She rolls her eyes, standing from her seat when the ship's artificial gravity fails, being replaced by the planet's, causing the commander to stumble, Winters steadying her, to her slight embarrassment. "Alright. Since I assume you know what sections aren't compromised, lets do a quick check."

He nods and the two officers jog down the ship's now empty corridors and rooms, taking four minutes to do so, every few seconds feeling the hull shake as it gets further into the colony's gravitational field. Suddenly the hallway changes into a steep slide, Raina leaping into an adjacent doorway, catching her friend as he falls past her. "You're not getting away that easily, lieutenant." She says with a bit of a grin.

Its now his turn to roll his eyes, before the two hurry to one of the life pods. There's only one left, and it happens to be their bridge crew, who quickly pull the two inside and get them strapped in. The pilot speaks up. "Only thirty seconds. You two were cutting it close. Anyways..." The pod launches away from the ship, the crew watching in silence as the ship glows orange from re-entry, before suddenly detonating into a fireball. Transfixed by the scene, most of them don't hear the pilot mutter "Shockwave incoming..." before their heads all get smashed into the hull as the pod bucks and shakes, knocking over two thirds of them unconscious. The last thought that goes through Raina's head is "Maybe I should've took the desk job." before her vision fades to black.

 ** _AU Timeline:_**

 _ **2160-2170:** _

_Humanity Experiences the "Interplanetary Wars", a series of conflicts between the United Nations, the Koslovics, based on Mars, and the Frieden Movement, based in the Jovian Moons. Outcome: The devastation of much of Earth's natural resources, along with a United Nations victory. The United Nations Space Command is officially formed, to act as Humanity's Military and Exploratory arm of government._

 _ **2291:** _

_Doctors Wallace Fugikawa and Tobias Shaw develop the Shaw-Fugikawa slipspace drive, allowing humanity to colonize other systems._

 _ **2296:** _

_Strange gravitational readings are found on Pluto's moon of Charon, which is revealed to have been a long dormant alien device. Scientists begin to speculate why this has occured now and not earlier, though none are able to figure it out yet. Regardless, humanity discovers these 'Mass Relays' in many of their systems, and decides to use them for faster supply transport. The slipspace drive is still used for transport to some systems that lack a Mass Relay._

 _ **2310:** _

_The Colonial Administration Authority and the Colonial Military Administration are formed._

 _ **2490:**_

 _The Insurrection begins, with various rebel factions, mostly the United Rebel Front, taking up arms against the UNSC._

 ** _2525:_**

 _Communications cease from the_ _agricultural world of Shanxi, in the UNSC Outer Colonies. The UNSC Frigate Force of Will is initially dispatched to investigate the disturbance, with HIGHCOM expecting an innie attack. Though when the frigate loses contact with them as well, Battle Group 4, consisting of CMA destroyer Heracles, along with frigates Arabia and Vostok, is sent as well._

 _The Turians make first contact with an unknown species trying to activate a mass relay. Initial attempts to halt their actions turn violent, and a single Turian frigate is crippled, along with two of the alien's frigates. This battlegroup soon loses contact with their superiors, though one final transmission can be heard, trying to explain that they need reinforcements when the message abruptly ceases._

 _(Current Year)_

 ** _Author's Note:_**

 ** _Alright people. So this is my first story, so before you get too harsh with your comments, just remember that I will accept criticism as long as it is constructive_ _. And now to explain a bit about the plot. The alien "frigate" was a Turian cruiser, it's just called that because its around frigate/destroyer size for the UNSC. So you'll be seeing a lot of stuff like that as I switch POV's between factions. And as for Mass Effect characters, I'll be moving birth dates and stuff forward so that many are still as they are shortly before the first game. Anyways, second chapter'll be up soon, so if you have any questions, I'll try to clear them up in the author's note of that chapter. Or a PM, provided you send me one. Bye!_**

 _"Italics" **equal a comm transmission, an AI, or an alien language.**_


	2. C1: First Contact

_**Chapter One: First Contact**_

 **UNSC Research Vessel _Epiphany_ _,_ Shanxi System, UNSC Outer Colonies, April 18th, 2525**

 **POV: Lieutenant Commander Victor Daniels, UNSC Research Division**

"We know what we're doing Commander, we've done it a dozen times. Besides, you and your men have our back if something happens." He cuts off the comm, deciding to focus on his crew for the time being, who were mostly civilians, and needed, well, babysitting, essentially.

The message was going to the CO of the small task force protecting the colony, which happened to be only a pair of Mako class corvettes. Hardly a sturdy defense, but all they were supposed to do was discourage an Insurrectionist attack on the Orbital Elevator, or failing that, assist with rescue efforts. But what they had no idea of, was that they would soon be Shanxi's first line of defense, against a threat no one in the UNSC had expected. But back to the _Epiphany..._

"LC, we've used our maser to send the message to the relay. I'd estimate an hour until its fully powered, if its like all the others." His crewman responsible for Ops comments quietly, getting a single nod from the lieutenant commander, who was simply studying the power readouts that covered his screen.

Victor was fascinated by the alien technology of things like these relics, which was why he had volunteered for the job. He didn't join the UNSC to die fighting Innies, thank you very much. He just wanted to explore the stars, and as such, was one of the members of a lobby group that advocated that the UEG start gleaning more technology from the Relays, and not on what they all viewed as archaic tech. But their movement had been strongly opposed, so it had more or less backed down recently, especially as the Innies started getting...braver. Everyone, even in a remote outer colony like this, had seen vids on Waypoint that showed the passenger liner _National Holiday_ being ripped in half by Innie explosives...and heard recordings of the captain of the vessel's final words, calmly directing other ships out of the way of the debris as it fell into Reach's atmosphere.

It shook everyone to the core...which was one of the reasons why he had petitioned that they be allowed to activate the Shanxi relay. It would be a distraction from the horrific news, as well as hopefully new territory for the UEG. As the man shook himself out of his memories and refocused on the screen, he noticed the power readings were fluctuating more than usual.

"LC? What the hell is happening?" He heard several of his crewmen ask, them obviously having noticed as well.

Victor clears his throat, thinking for a moment, before deciding to play it safe. "I...don't know. But helm, put fifteen thousand kilometers between us and the relay."

He hears murmured words of agreement, the ship turning around and starting to move, when one of his crew gasps and calls out "LC! Eight contacts are coming through the relay!"

"Helm! Full burn away, get us back to Shanxi by yesterday." He says abruptly, feeling the ship start to accelerate, before a loud crack sounds out, and his face is smashed into the console. The officer lifts it up a moment later, seeing his blood decorating it, though he does care, hearing alarms as he checks a status report on the ship...before noticing that the entire rear of the relatively unarmored ship is flashing red, big letters telling him that the main engines have failed. victor then checks the sensor data, eyes widening when it shows that seven corvettes, and one frigate sized vessel, have started to surround them already, slowly closing in.

In desperation, he activates the maser on his own, not waiting for his comms officer to do it, and sending a message to the officer in charge of the CMA forces defending Shanxi. _Under attack by Unknown ships. Six Corvettes, one frigate._ He types quickly, sending it on a high frequency pulse...when the alien ships open fire again, the ship bucking and shaking.

"Don't worry. We'll be okay." He says quietly as he looks at the terrified faces of his crew. The man then types one last thing. _Don't recover. There won't be survivors._ Exactly six second after he hits send, his world ceases to exist.

As the ruined ship is torn apart under the fury of the alien weapons, a trio of the corvettes accelerate towards the planet, where the pair of human ships wait for them. A dozen missiles launch from each Mako, along with streams of bullets from their point-defense cannons. Of course, the alien ships easily blast the projectiles apart with their laser systems, before returning fire with their GARDIAN systems, the lasers burning away patches of hull as the faster ships easily evade most of the point defense fire, they quickly pass by the human ships and quickly turn around to fire again, targeting engines and managing to disable those. Its clear the human corvettes can't compete with the speed offered by the alien vessels, nor with the rather strange tactics, with the enemy warships preforming strafing runs more similar to fighters than actual corvettes.

After several runs, the reactor on one of the Makos goes critical and detonates, all three alien corvettes now preparing for an attack run on the survivor. Its point defenses had gone silent, and as the enemy ships rapidly approach, it remains still, though its evidently near destruction. At the last possible second, though, it fires its emergency thrusters and shoots off to the side...right into the path of one of the alien warships. The two collide with a violent explosion, the kinetic barriers failing with the impact, and the two wrecked ships meshing together for a brief second, before the reactor on the Mako ignites, the fireball it produces consuming everything, with only a few molten pieces of the alien ship surviving the point-blank nuclear detonation. Still, as the small alien battlegroup regroups, one thing is clear. Unless someone can pull a miracle, the colony would fall before reinforcements could even arrive.

 **POV: Staff Sergeant Damien Xavier, Ninth CMA Company**

To be fair to the CMA officials on the planet, it took less than an hour for the entire world to start evacuating and retreating to the capital. But it wasn't enough, so as the alien corvettes began deploying forces just outside the capital city, blocking roadways and making escape impossible, the humans had their own surprise ready. A Mass Driver, essentially a small MAC cannon, was located just in the mountains outside the city. In addition, the roughly sixty militiamen and eight marines were already mobilized. But as there was one other city on the planet, a dozen militia and one marine were sent there to help out with the evacuation. since the roads weren't an option, they were heading there via the rail system that transported cargo for the orbital elevator from one city to the other.

Damien was almost ready to piss himself, if he was being honest. Just a day ago, he was...well, lets just say there was two reasons he was on CMT duty. There were no Innie attacks in system since the colony's founding, and he had a bad habit of visiting places with...nice women, if the meaning is clear. He had most certainly not thought that he would be defending the place against aliens. Despite all this, though, he was more than a bit proud that the men with him, that he had helped train, were standing tall and as brave as they could manage. It made him feel a bit more confident, and ten minutes later, as the container grinds to a halt, he slides into the driver's seat of one of the two M12 "Warthog" LRV's, both of which now had a driver and a gunner each.

"Alright, 'Hogs, we go engage the bastards now, while you guys start getting the civvies onto these two containers. We know they're alien, so if you see anyone not human, blow their fucking head off." He revs the engine, seeing the doors slowly slide open, before gently easing his vehicle down the ramp, seeing the large crowd of civilians part from his way. The marine calls out "Everybody, get aboard, no shoving. And Adams?" He turns to see a female militia member walk forward and look at him.

"Yeah?" She says over the crowd, looking at him curiously.

"You're in charge here. Make sure they get out of here."

She responds with a quick nod, before she begins calling out orders, Damien and the other Warthog begin moving towards the edge of the crowd, before getting the chance to accelerate and race down the road, occasionally weaving between abandoned cars. Part of him wonders where the aliens are, before he hears screaming and guns the engine. About a hundred meters away, he sees a woman scream in pain as she's shot in the arm and shoved towards a building, her fighting back against them despite the pain. Behind the scene, at least a dozen of the strange, almost birdlike aliens wait near one of their landed corvettes, all armed.

Not wanting to hit the woman, he slams his hand on the 'Hog's horn, the female turning, eyes wide, before sropping to the ground, the aliens confused before the M41 Vulcans on the back of each LRV open fire, sending a storm of bullets at the enemy. It doesn't take long for them to react, though for the briefest second they hesitate, allowing the kinetic barriers on several to fall, before the 12.7x99mm rounds tear them apart.

The sergeant pulls out his handgun, leaning around the windshield and firing a few shots at them, causing the aliens to all dive for cover. The vehicle skids to a halt next to the woman, the gunners on both 'Hogs keeping their adversaries behind cover as Damien quickly pulls her aboard and puts her in the passenger seat. "Anyone else?" He quickly asks her.

"N..No one alive..." She quickly replies, stuttering a little as she starts to look a bit shell shocked.

"Well, hold on." He informs her, before quickly reversing, the other Warthog doing the same, causing the aliens to cautiously raise from cover and fire at the retreating vehicles, their rounds sparking and deflecting off the hood. Well, until a projectile slams into the other hog, blowing it up instantly. Barely even relizing what it was, he starts to turn around, briefly glimpsing an alien armored vehicle, before a trio of JOTUN crop dusters crash down on the area, obscuring it from view, and likely causing quite a bit of damage to the alien forces.

Damien scans the two bodies from the other hog, sighing when neither move, before quickly going down the road. A semi-snarky voice then speaks up in his radio.

 _"You're welcome."_ It says quietly, with the voice fairly obviously female. The voice was that of the planet's AI, who managed everything, from City management, to Agricultural work, and even the single orbital elevator the colony had.

"Thanks Allison. But maybe you could've done that sooner. Anyways, are the containers loaded?" He quickly replies, trying to focus on driving.

 _"As loaded as they can be. But a squad got past you...they started killing civilians. And both Adams and Cho are dead. Cho was the first one shot, and Adams...she charged them, and died by blowing up one of the fuckers with a grenade."_ The Artificial Intelligence's voice shows a hint of anger. _"Anyways, I had to start moving it, though there's another station near the city's edge. What's your speed?"_

He briefly checks, somewhat confused on why she needed to know. "Seventy KPH. Why?"

 _"Just stay that speed. And you can drive right into the station. It's...turn left at this corner."_

He takes her word on it, which is a good thing, he sees, because as they turn, he catches a glimpse of several alien soldiers. "Thanks, Allie. But I need to know the route to this station."

 _"Right turn here, then hang another left. Then three blocks straight, and a final right. you'll see it."_

He does as she says, occasionally glancing at the injured civilian beside him, and then at his militia gunner, noting the almost shell-shocked look on their face. Soon enough, they're on the final turn, and he doesn't see any station. "Uh, Allison?..."

 _"Well...I lied about it being a station, but see for yourself."_ She says in a slightly guilty voice, one of her JOTUN combines being visible lifting a pair of cars up to form a ramp. An empty car can also be seen drifting closer on the rail, raised several meters above the street, doors open. _"Speed up to one-ten. I can handle the rest."_

"We are going to have to have a serious talk about your people skills." He mutters, though he obeys the 'order', accelerating the vehicle to the requested speed, before there's a bone jarring thump as the 'Hog hits the ramp, the speed quickly dropping a bit, though it ends up soaring into the air, him slamming on the brakes as the vehicle roughly hits the container floor, skidding seven meters and breaking through two different shelves, before crashing into the wall of the container.

A few seconds later, as the container's doors close, he immediately crawls from the Warthog, groaning. "That's a hell of a headache...but we're alive." He glances back at the vehicle, seeing the gunner picking himself off the ground, and walking over to help the civvie. Damien slowly rises to his knees, thinking of a question to ask. "How many made it out?"

A few moments later, the AI, Allison, quietly speaks into his helmet. _"Six thousand, four hundred, and forty three. Out of roughly twenty-five thousand."_

He curses loudly, slamming a fist onto the metal floor of the cargo container. "Please tell me its going better in other areas..."

 _"Regarding casualties, or territory lost?"_ She queries, examining her databases.

"Both."

 _"It isn't going much better than here. While out of the planet's Six hundred thousand people, over half of them have made it to the capital...Many are now dead. The rest are hiding in the city. Regarding the territory, we've lost almost all assets outside of the city, with the exception of the reactor complex, up in the mountains. Though out of squad's 1A and 2A, over half of them are dead. An enemy corvette tried to land nearby, and I blasted it with the Mass Driver. But they somehow managed to get special forces there regardless, and have it surrounded. Anyways, the city should be able to be held for maybe a day before we're pushed back. Also...Captain Howe is dead. He insisted on fighting with his men."_

The marine looks a bit shocked, though he manages to focus on one problem in that long statement. "Wait...aren't your datastores in the reactor complex?"

She lets out a bit of a virtual sigh. _"Yes. And Staff Sergeant King has made it clear that I'm to be shut down if they break in...but I'm happy to die if it keeps people safe."_

He stays quiet for a few moments, before he yawns. "Allison, if you're still active by then...wake me up when we arrive at the city. I don't want to die in my sleep."

A hint of amusement comes back to her voice. _"Yes Sergeant...I'll be your alarm clock. Cause that's not a waste of my abilities at all."_

He sighs, shaking his head a bit, before slowly drifting into the world of unconsciousness.

 **POV:** **Recruit Lucy Sarrow, CMA Militia Bravo Platoon**

The trainee wakes up with a bit of a cry, her hearing nothing but a ringing in her ears, and feeling a dull throbbing in her skull. The young woman suddenly feels the urge to throw up, her faintly realizing that she had a concussion, though that thought is in the back of her mind as she hears the muted cracks of gunfire, followed by the sounds of the alien weapons. And as she realizes someone is dragging her by her arms.

"W..What's happening?" She asks quietly, though her voice sounded a bit slurred and she had a slight stutter. The next thing she sees in her blurry vision is a face only a foot from her own.

"We're defending the reactor from these alien bastards.. Can you walk? Cause I should probably go back and help out your buddies. Lord knows they'll end up eating a bullet without someone to keep them in line."

Lucy recognizes the voice of the staff sergeant in charge of her platoon. She manages a short nod, feeling the man release her and run off back down the concrete hallway. She collapses to the ground without him to hold her up, taking a few breaths before slowly and painfully sitting up, her eyes widening when she hears a shrill scream. The recruit forces herself to stand, seeing her MA5B assault rifle on the ground and picking it up, briefly checking the ammo. Forty three rounds, plus the extra clip she had left. Enough for now, she thinks, before she sprints back towards the firefight, mostly trying not to trip on her own feet or run into a wall.

Less than a minute later, just as she rounds a corner, she barely has enough time to throw herself to the ground as a body surrounded by purple energy flings itself into a nearby wall. Due to her current position, she can't actually see who it is, though as two alien soldiers approach her, she decides on playing dead. The pair walk over her motionless form, focused on the sergeant struggling in their biotic hold. She hears one start yelling in its alien language, Lucy slowly rolling onto her back, seeing the two both facing their captive, not realizing it as she crawls a few feet backwards, before rolling a frag grenade at their feet.

She looks past them to see the sergeant grin widely, before a loud bang and a brief explosion cloud her view, and overwhelm both of the alien's shields, as well as knock both of them over. She feels a small piece of shrapnel bury itself in her arm as she shields her face, before she aims her rifle and fires at the two fallen enemies, firing a short burst into each of their heads and chests, before quickly rushing over to her ally.

"Sergeant?" She asks, kneeling next to him and almost getting out a can of biofoam, before she sees a shard of metal lodged in his throat. The young woman almost loses her breakfast again, as she sees that. Though she manages to get to her feet as she hears footsteps behind her, her starting to run when several of the alien bullets tear into her legs and hip, her barely managing to fling herself around the corner, throwing her remaining grenade back around it, before she manages to stand, though she's leaning heavily on the nearest wall. Regardless, she starts limping deeper into the facility, wanting to get away from the aliens. Fortunately the grenade seems to discourage the aliens from following for now, buying her about thirty seconds. In that time, shes able to get through a set of metal blast doors, which slide shut behind her.

 _"Good job, trainee. But I'm afraid that door will only hold them maybe a minute or two, depending on their breaching charges, Get to my core room, I can seal you in there until reinforcements arrive."_ Allison's voice comes through a nearby loudspeaker, sounding fairly comforting and reassuring at the moment.

Lucy finds herself getting even more dazed now that her adrenaline begins to fade, the young soldier falling to her knees and trying to blink the spots out of her eyes, before giving up on that and crawling forward about another fifteen meters, before she passes through another doorway. She then hears a loud bang and instinctively ducks into a prone position, luckily missing a hail of gunfire, before she notices steam filling the room, hiding her from the enemy. "Thanks." She mutters under her breath, realizing that the AI had done that, before she quickly scrambles through the door, turning and emptying what remained of her rifle's clip wildly into the fog, before the half-meter thick titanium door slides shut.

The recruit feels her strength start to wane, mostly from blood loss, as she crawls slowly over to a console and sits against it, letting out a small sigh as she pulls the can of biofoam out once more. Though as she presses it to her wounds and prepares to inject it, she ends up dropping it, it taking a few tries to pick it up again with her blurring and rapidly darkening vision. Still, after a few seconds she manages to fill all of her injuries with the rapidly hardening substance, wincing a bit, before she hears a familiar voice speak up once more.

 _"Take some rest and recover, soldier. I'm watching the cameras, and it doesn't seem like they have the explosives to get through. I've sealed off the reactor too. You're safe here with me."_ Allison quietly says, having noticed that Lucy was having problems staying awake regardless.

"M..M..My squad. Th..The rest of the platoon..." She hesitates a bit, her lips struggling to form the words as her eyes start to involuntarily close. "Are they...alive?"

 _"There is no human alive in this complex besides you. I'm sorry."_

Lucy looks more than a bit dismayed, though she can't stay awake any longer, and as such, passes out seconds later.

 ** _Authors Note: So...some questions that need answering. If it wasn't clear enough from the dates, this is about two days earlier than the previous chapter. Secondly,_ **TheIrishWriter **, _UNSC Ships do not use Eezo, and human soldiers don't have kinetic barriers. My reasoning for that is that since they advanced without this technology for so long, they decided to utilize it as little as possible in order to not become dependent on it. Keep in mind, they discovered Prothean technology in my technology about a hundred years after the Systems Alliance did in the Mass Effect timeline. Anyways,_** TheRealMasonMac **, _I'm unsure about making the Forerunners be featured, but I can say this. Its unlikely that the flood will show up. They're just going to derail the story's plot later on from being about conflicts between the Council and the UNSC, and later on, the Reapers. They tend to overcomplicate things. To_** Zero _ **, Spartans'll be mentioned in about Chapter four. And**_ ** _finally,_** CheesusChrist15 **,** _ **I'll take your comment/criticism, and try to improve my story with it. Thanks. And for everyone else, thanks for reading, I'll have the next chapter out as soon as I can. Bye**_


	3. C2: Small Victories

**_Chapter Two: Small Victories_**

 ** _Near Taiyuan, Shanxi, UNSC Outer Colonies, April 19th, 2525_**

 **POV: Staff Sergeant Damien Xavier, Ninth CMA Training Company**

 _"-ff Sergeant? Sergeant, wake up already. Now!"_

He was woken up by the voice of Allison speaking in his ear, just like he had asked her to. That didn't mean he wasn't a bit annoyed at being awakened, though. "What is it, Allie? Are we here?"

 _"Almost. There's been bit of a problem, though." S_ he replies in a serious tone, which was a bit unusual for the normally playful artificial intelligence. Still, Damien just chalked it up to what was happening.

"And that is?..." He asks immediately after she finishes, not wanting to play a guessing game with her.

 _"While these aliens haven't been able to breach the reactor complex's core facilities, despite killing almost all the defenders, they've decided on a different approach. Their engineers have begun severing power connections, and...well, I've lost most of the power to the cargo containers you and the civilians are in. So you're down to twenty percent speed, meaning that you're slow enough for these inhuman pricks to board and search. That can't happen. Or you'll all be killed, or put in one of their prisoner camps I've been seeing pop up all over the planet."_

"So you need us to reconnect these severed connections?"

 _"Yes. They actually did it in a power transfer station about a klick further along your path. Fix that, and I can get the speed up to eighty percent. Not ideal, but a hell of a lot better than now. I would have asked one of the other groups of resistance to do it, but..."_

"We're closest. Yeah, I understand." The man pauses a few seconds, thinking for a few moments. "I'll take two people and try to get that system back online. Also, you mentioned prisoner camps? 'Cause I sure as hell didn't see any."

 _"I know you didn't. the enemy forces at the city were being much more aggressive than the others, so if anything, I would think that's the enemy commander in charge of that particular assault. Anyways, Pick your people and go. I'll keep you informed of any new developments."_ She kills the channel, leaving him with just silence.

That is, until he stands up, and walks over to wake up the other militiamen in the container, him stopping when he sees the woman he had rescued staring at him. "Do you need something, ma'am?"

"Yeah. I want to help with whatever it is you're planning." She says quietly, not breaking his gaze, it being mildly creepy to Damien.

"Sorry, no civvie's allowed." He says quietly, gently nudging the sleeping man with his foot, before he sees the woman stand up, only being an inch shorter than the marine.

"Don't play that game, sergeant. I'm a police officer, and I know how to fire a damn gun. Besides, the others will be safer if the rest of the militia stay guarding them. Meanwhile, this container would have no one in it, meaning it doesn't need to be guarded." She crosses her arms, brushing a bit of her black hair out of her face, staring up at him with icy blue eyes.

He looks away after a few seconds, before sighing, her having made several good points. "Still, it would b-"

"Don't suggest that it would be easier to just transfer people between containers. You know as well as I do that it would be quite difficult and time consuming. We can leave now, if you'd just stop being a stubborn jackass."

He seems more than a bit insulted, stepping a bit closer to her and raising his voice a bit. "Listen up, lady. I don't care what you think you can do, but you were in borderline shock when we pulled you out. How do I know that won't happen again, the next time you see a-"

She cuts him off yet again, having a fairly fiery temper, and raising her voice to match his. "It wasn't because I saw a body. Or even because I was shot. It was because I just watched the murderous bastards kill my little cousins. The ones I literally had adopted a couple years back. So with all due respect Staff Sergeant, you can kiss my-"

The trainee at his feet finally stands, before handing the police officer his sidearm, raising a hand for her to be quiet. "I agree with her. This needs to get done now."

Damien stares at the two, obviously a bit ticked off now, though after a few seconds he sighs. "Fine. But this isn't a democracy. You two had better listen to every damn word I say."

The two glance at each other, before nodding, the woman examining the pistol for a few seconds before lowering it to her side. "What's the plan, then?"

The sergeant crosses his arms, and proceeds to quickly explain what was the problem was, before sighing. "We need to go and fix the issue. Allie, do you have any cameras in the area? How many of them are there?"

 _"I was waiting for you to ask. Anyways, the cameras inside the facility are destroyed, however several JOTUN harvesters are active in the area, and from their cameras, I've been able to estimate the number. There's five outside, from what I can see. Two on the roof of the south tower, Marksmen, no doubt. One is guarding the main entrance of the building, and and two are patrolling the exterior fence. Oh, and I've uploaded the images of the site to your helmet, might want to share."_

He examines the images, sighing in frustration as he hands the helmet to the others. The sigh then suddenly fades as he sees a crate marked with the Misriah Armories logo, him quickly running over, the militia member following after he had scanned the images.

Damien almost yells with excitement, seeing several "toys" that gave him and his group a significant firepower improvement. Starting with what appeared to be a pair of silenced BR55 rifles, four silenced magnums, A half a dozen grenades, and a blocky weapon the marine didn't recognize immediately. He picks it up, a targeting screen popping out. "Allie, what's this?"

 _"That's a...hang on, there's a bit of a...that's a M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, apparently. Its a hugely expensive prototype for an infantry weapon. In short, its a laser. Five shots, but if my simulations are correct, I pity whoever's in the way."_

He studies it, before putting it on his back, figuring maybe they could use it later. He then picks up one of the silenced pistols in exchange for his own, putting it on his hip and grabbing his MA5B. "You two get the BR55s. Take a silenced pistol too, since we want to be relatively stealthy about this. And what are your names? I'd like something to call you two."

The police officer takes a few moments to comply, her handing the marine's helmet back. "My name's Anna. And Sergeant, I might have an idea..."

"This is such a stupid idea." Damien finds himself saying approximately seven minutes later, him crouching on the side of one of the massive JOTUN combines. The aliens had been ignoring them for a while now, since they found out that they were automated. That had let this one remain active and plowing the wheat fields nearby the transfer station. Which was where this, well, creative plan had came in. On its current pass, Allison would have the large machine deviate from its current circuit, and rip through the chain link fencing, causing him to both have an entry point, and to likely distract the marksmen and the patrol guards. Then the recruit and the cop would take out the marksmen in the confusion, and sneak into the base, hopefully dealing with the door guard as well.

At least, that was the plan, and he was hoping to god it worked. He then feels the JOTUN turn, sighing and readying his silenced pistol, having set his assault rifle beside him. The soldier aims it, though he doesn't fire yet, waiting for a better line of fire. The combine rapidly approaches the fence, with the marine relying on the shadow he was hiding in to conceal him as the two patrolling aliens walk up to look at the massive machine bearing down on them, not understanding the danger they were in, though that changes an instant later. Both aliens dive backwards as the automated farming unit suddenly rips through the fence, Damien having to grab on tightly to avoid being thrown off as it bucks a bit. Though one of the turian soldiers finds himself in a predicament as he tries to back up further, his back running into a metal shipping container.

They don't have time to get around it, the rotating metal blades of the JOTUN meeting their chest a second later, shredding the alien's armor, before promptly shredding them as well, bloody chunks of flesh being tossed in various directions, before the blades get stuck on the container, and stop spinning. The vehicle's passenger doesn't give the second alien any time to react to the rather gory death of their comrade, the sound of the four silenced gunshots hitting and overwhelming their barriers being masked by the combine's engine, before Damien's fourth shot shatters their visor and punches through their head. He holsters his pistol after quickly reloading it, grabbing his MA5 and sliding down the ladder, hitting the ground a moment later, where he starts running for the entrance, hoping his allies did their part of the plan. He also hears a muffled bang, though he doesn't pay too much attention to it.

Since his head isn't immediately hit by a sniper round, he assumes they had, though forgets about the door guard, who he soon runs into, literally. The alien is slightly quicker on the draw, managing to activate their omni-blade and slash at the marine, who uses his rifle to block the hit. The sturdy weapon doesn't stop it, obviously, though it gives him the time to leap back and avoid the next swing. Though before either soldier can attack another time, a three round burst shatters the turian's skull, Anna standing behind it with her BR55 _inside_ the alien's kinetic barrier. A moment later, the body flops to the ground.

"You're welcome, sergeant." The police officer comments quietly, her turning and walking over to the structure's entrance, where the militiaman waits, him nodding at Damien.

"Alright, I assume they know we're here?" The marine asks, recieving a nod from the other man almost instantly.

"Yes. They've got a few crates being used as cover, I caught two of them with a grenade when we first got here, but I've seen three more hiding behind cover. What's the plan?"

"Charge in." He says casually, though as the two get ready to do that, he stops them, giving both a flash bang and a frag each, before leading both to a wall on a different side of the building, unslinging the M6 and aiming it at the wall. "Throw them in six seconds." He mutters, before holding the trigger, hearing his weapon start to make a whining noise.

A few moments later, the noise reaches a fevered pitch, before a ruby beam of light, aided by him slashing it sideways a bit, blasts through the concrete wall. The various grenades then get chucked inside, while he puts the laser on his back and draws his sidearm. After the blasts of the explosives, he jumps through the opening, seeing one of the aliens dead, and in two halves. He guesses the laser had bisected them, though that doesn't matter too much as he sees two living turians staggering around, their barriers knocked out, and both blind and deaf. He puts three rounds in both, two in the chest and one in the head, before turning to face his two allies, who both have rifles raised. He's about to ask why, though he doesn't get that chance, feeling a blade of energy at his throat, one of the aliens holding him from behind and saying something in their alien language. Likely a "lower your weapons or he dies" sort of thing, seeing as the way they were holding the sergeant.

The two hesitate to lower their weapons, the alien yelling at them again, before the marine jabs his own knife back into the enemy's ribs, before managing to pull the blade away from his own neck long enough for the militiaman to drill it in the head with a few rounds from his battle rifle. Damien just gives his 'teammates' a slight nod, before he walks over to the control panel, activating his helmet comm. "Allie, you there? What do you need us to do?"

 _"I'm here. Alright...three things. Open that panel by your left knee."_

He crouches near it and forces the dented panel off, finding the interior of the compartment a mess of sparking components, someone obviously having decided to shoot it up with one of the alien assault rifles. The sergeant sighs, waiting for the artificial intelligence to speak. "How exactly should I fix this?"

After a brief pause, she answers, though she sounds a bit more frustrated than she had been. " _There's two wires somewhere in here that need to be reconnected in order for the console to work, and allow you to reactivate the power._ "

"Great. Which ones, and how big are they?"

 _"Considering there's over fifty separate wires in there, not big. And since they're all identical...Well, the first starts third from the top. Follow it to where its broken, then fix it."_

He does as she asks, tracing it down to where the wire had been severed, him taking a separate, broken wire, cutting a bit off with his knife, before managing to fit it in where the broken part was and attach it. "First one's done. Where's the next?"

 _"Thirty seventh down."_

"Really. Fine." He sighs and starts counting, fixing it about two minutes later, getting a slight shock as the console comes alive with a slight hum, the screen flickering on a moment later. It doesn't bother him too much, the man standing up a moment later, noticing an error message about the city power systems being partially deactivated, with a button that says "resolve." He clicks it, obviously.

" _Alright, power's back up...mostly. At any rate, its good enough that you guys should head to the rail, I set up another way up about two kilometers away from the current position. You might want to get going._ "

He curses a bit, before starting to run towards the rails, the other two right behind him.

"I'm assuming she set up a way...back, that gives us maybe three minutes to get there?" The police officer asks quietly.

"Pretty much. Now be quiet and run."

They reach a different combine, climbing up to the roof not ten seconds before the containers arrive, the three jumping inside as it passes, Damien sliding the door shut, before walking over and sitting next to the others. "So...are things going better or worse for the others?"

 _"Same answer as before, Sergeant. You guys have currently been the most successful. While the aliens honestly seem to be better equipped, we're taking down about three of them per one of us. But since they outnumber us so heavily...things aren't looking good. We can only hope that reinforcements get here soon."_

"Great...just great. So, have we been pushed back to the capital completely?"

 _"Basically...yes. The reactor complex is pretty much the enemy's now, though I sealed up enough of it that they can't really shut down anything vital. And there's one member of the militia still alive, though she's injured, and I locked the door to my data stores to keep her safe for now. Anyways, the defense of the city is falling to pieces under the command of Corporal Hall, so I suggest you take charge the moment you get there. He also is pretty much ignoring every suggestion I give him, so...he's stubborn. But he's the highest ranking person on the planet left alive, save the governor, who isn't military, and you."_

The marine sighs, hating this quite a bit, though he nods. "How bad is it?"

 _"Well, under the command of Captain Howe, the enemy was being held off at the city limits. Now, we've lost over half the city to these alien bastards. Its not all his fault, but his 'tactics', if you can even call them that, are certainly not helping. He's behaving like the entire force is a squad, and pretty much micromanaging everyone. Not the thing we need when he's commanding over a company of people."_

"Alright...yay, I get to be in charge. Well, I guess I'll take inventory until we get there, seeing as I've already slept enough." He walks over to the weapons crates, glancing at the other two, who are just quietly talking. "Me in charge...we're all going to die, I think." He mutters quietly, before just trying to lose himself in the task.

 ** _Author's Note:_** ** _So...I am very sorry it took me nearly a month to release something that by all rights should have taken a few days, but I got quite busy. I promise the next chapter will be released fairly soon (a week or so), and this time, I definitely can make that deadline. And if anyone's wondering, Shanxi will likely last another full chapter, and a fraction of the next. And then, Spartans might appear. Anyways, now for the likely ridiculously long part; answering reviews._**

 **Axcell,** _ **the short answer is, I need to make it not be quite as much of a curbstomp as it could be, which is pretty much the reason for a good chunk of the flaws you addressed. However, there is a few answers I can give you, the first being that the frigate had one of the engine pods sheered off by the main gun of the Turian cruiser, which I mostly did in an effort to make the fight more fair. the other one I can answer is why the GARDIANs did damage, and that is that Covenant pulse lasers, which granted, are quite a bit more powerful, did some fairly serious damage against lighter UNSC craft, like frigates. So I figured, with five different turian frigates firing, it might do a decent bit of damage to the UNSC ship. The rest of your answers...well, the first answer really covers them.**_

 **jam99chgo,** _ **and**_ **TheIrishWriter _, the killing civilians bit was one, to give the UNSC more motivation, and two, as I mentioned in this chapter, because of the CO of that particular assault. Hence why it wasn't the case on the rest of the planet. As for the other thing mentioned by_** **jam99chgo** _ **, the Infinity will not make an appearance early on into the fic, though it might appear just before the Reaper War. Or during. Depends.**_

 _ **Anyways, I think that is all. So, as usual, comment or PM me any concerns, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Bye.**_


	4. C3: Flames of Shanxi

**Chapter Three: Flames of Shanxi**

 ** _Taiyuan, Shanxi, UNSC Outer Colonies, April 20th, 2525_**

 **POV: Commander Tieus Sevesis, 28th Marine Division**

Turian Commander Tieus Sevesis prided himself on respecting his opponents, and trying to admire their strengths. But that was getting difficult as he received reports that yet another one of his squads had fallen to an alien ambush. This time, though, it was a recon team he had sent to scout out a plaza near the city center, one of the last pockets of enemy resistance. They estimated that there was about a dozen soldiers patrolling the nearby buildings, using rocket volleys and land mines to halt his tank column whenever they advanced. And his infantry just didn't have the firepower to root out the enemy, not when sniper attacks, and various types of traps prevented their entry of the buildings, except through one route.

He had to admit, this was a well organized defense, but the way his opponents fought, attacking his forces, then slipping away, was getting on his nerves. Still, they had information on their opponents. There were two types of enemies, the more numerous ones, with olive clothing and no serious armor, and armed with an automatic rifle that could strip kinetic barriers away and seconds. He had noticed that they were typically disorganized, so he assumed they were a planetary militia. And then there was a type that was quickly dwindling, that had darker green combat armor, that could deflect a few rounds from low caliber weapons. They seemed to be the ones organizing everything...though there was less of them with every ambush his small force of commandos dealt with.

The battleground didn't help, either. The city had small streets, barely big enough for a single tank to pass through, and it had its back to a mountain, the entire city sloping upwards. This plaza was in near the highest point, which made his job harder, as his own marksmen on the roofs were exposed to the enemy. Regardless of this, the battle would be quick, as soon as they had orbital support again. Though his hopes were dashed for that when a younger turian, a sergeant, sprinted into his command post. "Commander, we have incoming...things. Launched from orbit."

He sighs, walking outside of the building, with the Sergeant following a few feet behind him. Tieus raises his sniper rifle, taking a quick look and seeing a dozen black dots on the horizon, rapidly growing closer to them, and revealing that they're burning orange from reentry. He examines them, before noticing a sort of drag chute engage on the pods. "I want my armored vehicles moved underneath those pedestrian bridges, and have all soldiers ready to take cover. Anyone with a rocket launcher, though, get a lock on them and fire. It doesn't look like an orbital bombardment, but I'm not taking any chances."

The moment he finishes talking, his forces begin moving as he asks, several blue accented projectiles arcing up from the city and intercepting five of the pods, causing them to veer off course...and one of them right at his position. "Get to cover!" He yells, ducking inside a nearby doorway, along with the sergeant. A moment later, the object slams into the ground on its side, skipping off the street and slamming into a wall no more than six feet away from the commander...crushing a Turian soldier. After a few seconds of silence, Tieus steps from the doorway, walking so that he had a clear line of sight to the pod. Four other soldiers, including the sergeant, slowly emerge as well, all staring at the pod.

After a few more moments, he clears his throat. "You two" He indicates to Turian soldiers. "Check it out."

The two glance at each other, before slowly walking closer, until both are standing directly in front of a hatch, weapons pointed at it. And thats when all hell breaks loose, said hatch launching off of the object and slamming into the two hard enough to shatter their kinetic barrels and knock both on their backs. The blood dripping from their mouths, as well as the fact that neither moved, being a bad sign. But as he raises his pistol, a black armored figure leaps out of the pod and fires a bulky, two barreled weapon at him. Fortunately for the turian officer, the sergeant had jumped in front, though the force of the explosion shatters both kinetic barriers, and sends him flying into a wall.

His vision goes black on impact, though it reappears moments later, the cracks of a burst of gunfire being the only thing he could hear as the alien commando quickly neutralizes the last turian soldier. It then turns its attention to Tieus, noticing as he weakly pushes himself to his feet. It raises its rifle, preparing to finish off the turian when energy wraps around his hand and launches at them, slamming into their chest and knocking them backwards. The commander lets his biotic energy surround him, giving him a shield, though his kinetic barriers don't regenerate. He then starts walking towards the fallen alien, pistol drawn.

The being quickly rolls onto its knees, before lunging for their weapon, ignoring the few pistol rounds he fires, only one actually breaching the armor. The black armored thing then rolls over again and fires several times at him, the two exchanging fire until both run out of ammo, though as it tries to reload, Tieus charges and activates his omniblade, kicking its weapon out of its hands and planting a foot on its chest. "What are you?" He asks furiously.

It doesnt answer verbally, likely not understanding the question, and yanks a primitive knife from its chestplate and shoving the blade into the leg not resting on it, before roughly shoving up on the foot on its chest. He cries out, his injured leg collapsing and omniblade dissipating, leaving the alien free to get to its knees and tackle him, one hand roughly pulling the blade out of his leg, as it quickly straddles him and raises the knife, before thrusting it down, only to be blocked by him grabbing its wrists.

He finds that while stronger than the alien, it has a much better position, and is able to lean its body weight on the strike, making a bit of progress, before he delivers a biotically enhanced punch to its face. Its head snaps back, visor cracking, leaving him to grab the blade and throw it away, before preparing to punch it again, and shatter its mirrored visor. The attack doesn't work, though, him losing focus suddenly as the alien grabs one of his mandibles and yanks as hard as they can on it. The flesh and muscles rip after a moment, him screaming in pain, before the thing's armored elbow to the throat causes it to fade to a cough. It then pulls a spherical object off of its side, roughly shoving it into his mouth. As it jumps off, he's able to see a red light flash twice, before suddenly, nothing matters to him anymore.

 **POV: Captain Evelyn Sykes, 13th Shock Troops Battalion**

She wipes the dark blue blood off of her now cracked visor, allowing herself a dark grin as she stares at the now mangled corpse of the alien commander, along with his deceased allies. The Helljumper walks a bit closer and pulls her knife from its leg, her collecting her fallen battle rifle, along with the M41 SNKR she had dropped. She reloads its spent tube, before putting the bulky weapon on her back and reloading her rifle. As she does this, however, she hears something behind her and turns quickly, aiming her rifle at the wide eyes of two young men in olive clothing, who both quickly raise their hands.

"I'm recruit Bradley, he's Fenwick...don't shoot us please. We're with the militia." One of them quickly says, Evelyn looking the two over. Bradley was tall, and fairly bulky too, the kind of person the ODST could easily see was a farmer, the old fashioned kind, not one who relied on JOTUNs to do all his work. Fenwick was more slender and only an inch taller than Evie herself, who only stood five and a half feet. The shorter militiaman also looked like he had some asian heritage, as opposed to the blond caucasian Bradley was.

"Good to see that some of you all survived. Though, where's your squad? Or CO?" She asks a moment later, their faces reflecting off of her visor.

"Dead, ma'am. A group of these guys caught us off guard, while we were helping a group of civilians. Gunned all of us down, though me and him dropped to the ground when they opened fire. They walked by us." Bradley whispers, the other recruit remaining silent.

Evie stares at them for a second, before sighing. "Questionable survival aside, I need a sitrep on what's happening? Where are your remaining forces? The plaza I sent all my men towards?"

The two militiamen exchange glances, before nodding. "We saw all the pods heading there, except yours, so we assume so. But the remaining bastards have surrounded the place, and they have shielded tanks. We've only been able to kill two of them. And that took most of our firepower."

"Two out of..." The woman prompts, looking at Bradley.

"A dozen. Don't we have Pelicans incoming, though? Couldn't they take out the tanks?" He asks hopefully.

"Maybe. But lets just focus on kicking these bastards off of our planet. Before our buddies in the air conditioned dropships get here." She turns and starts walking, the two quickly following.

Fenwick finally speaks up. "Ma'am, with all respect, its suicide to take one of these on. They have a full auto railgun capable of mowing down our infantry, and a heavy cannon. Not to mention, it takes a volley of rockets to destroy one."

"You clearly haven't met many Helljumpers, then. Impossible is what we do." She walks down the alley, her moving quickly through the deserted streets, entering a small skyscraper's lobby. They then head up a staircase, before walking out onto one of the pedestrian bridges, her crouching near the railing to avoid getting a round through her head, though she hears a rumbling beneath her. The two militia crawl over, the shorter looking anxious, while Bradley looks rather excited.

"Ma'am, theres a tank and a squad of these bastards below us. You don't seriously expect to take them out? Because that's crazy." Fenwick whispers, barely audible to Evie, who responds by pulling her SPNKR rocket launcher off of her back and tossing it to him.

She then holsters her battle rifle on her back, drawing her magnum in one hand, before looking at the two. "So I'm crazy, then. Because you two are going to take out the infantry while I jump down and take out the tank. We need to move quickly, and you two need to pop up and fire the second I say."

The two nod, her stretching a little, staying crouched, before whispering "Now" and leaping over the railing, falling a story before landing roughly on the back of the tank. She hears the rattle of an assault rifle firing, before the sound of a pair of rockets firing and detonating motivates her enough to quickly leap for a hatch near the front of the vehicle. She was aware she was right in front of the turret, and in a very vulnerable position, before wrenching it open and diving in, her landing among three turian crew members, all of whom look at her, clearly surprised.

Evelyn promptly raises her pistol and shoots the closest in the head, their kinetic barriers being shut off at the moment. The ODST shifts her aim to the second, though the rush at her, causing her shot to simply strike their chest before they slam into her and pin her against a wall, while the third alien activates their barriers and pulls a shotgun from the nearest compartment.

The female soldier is still struggling with her opponent, before she manages to roll a grenade across thre floor, it landing at the armed alien's feet. As they look down at it, the explosive detonates, ripping through its shielding and filling it with shrapnel. But due to the confined space, not only does it hit them, it also strikes the helljumper in the leg a bit, and fills the turian she's wrestling with's back full of jagged shards of metal. The distraction and blood loss of the alien combatant allow Evie to shove them back, before hitting them with a 'mercy shot' in the forehead, ending their life immediately.

As the adrenaline fades a little, she realizes that the militia are in trouble, hearing Bradley cry out, and a hail of alien weapons-fire. So she decides to help, sealing the hatch and sitting in the main driver's seat, her noticing several controls. Seeing a turian directly in front of her, taking shelter behind the front of the tank, she simply pushes forward on a joystick, the vehicle responding and jetting forward, slamming into the alien and knocking them backwards. It just takes out their barriers and knocks them back, though, them cursing at her, likely assuming that the driver had just made a mistake. Noticing what she presumes is a weapons icon in the corner of the screen, she taps it, getting a message with a red or green option. The woman taps the green, being pleased when she's rewarded with her screen switching views into a different camera with a targeting dot.

"You know, its kind of sad when you don't have to even read the language to understand how to use the tank." She mutters to herself, before squeezing down on a trigger on the joystick and swiping it over the enemies, a hail of blue tinged rounds spitting from the vehicle, quickly mowing down the remaining aliens. Evelyn quickly climbs out of the seat a moment later, her opening the hatch and waving to Fenwick. "You two alright? Cause we just got a way to help our buddies out."

The man sighs, before hauling the larger recruit to his feet and supporting him. "Bradley took a hail of bullets to the stomach. So we'll take the long way down. Also, thanks for shooting the bastards. The one you smacked into was about to shoot this bridge with a rocket."

She gives them the thumbs up, the two walking down a nearby ramp onto the street, her quickly running over and helping support the larger soldier, ignoring the biting pain of the shrapnel lodged in her leg, and of the bullet wound on her side. The two manage to haul Bradley into the vehicle and get him seated in the back, before Evelyn holds up a can of biofoam. "This'll sting a little." She tells him calmly, before kneeling next to him and spraying the substance into the injury.

He gasps a bit, the cold foam hurting quite a bit, him squeezing her knee rather tightly as she finishes. "That hurt a...bit more than...a little...ma'am."

The ODST smiles a little, her visor depolarizing as she shrugs. "Or you're just a wuss. Anyways, still got a third of the can left. Fenwick, you hurt?" She turns to the other militiaman, who has no serious injuries, before noticing that Bradley is still squeezing her knee, her gently pushing his hand away.

"No, but you are, Captain." The shorter male says quietly, noticing the blood leaking from her side, and the metal sticking out of her leg. "Just sit back and I can probably apply it better then you can."

She sighs, before sitting in the driver's seat and handing him the can, being sure to lift her arm and expose the injury for him. "Fine, but make it quick. The Pelicans'll arrive in about ten minutes, and as I said, I'd like to deal with most of these fuckers before they get here."

Fenwick nods and gets close to her, before inserting the nozzel of the can near the bullet hole and spraying a bit, hearing a slight noise from the woman, before he pulls out the piece of metal in her leg, her biting her tongue and barely avoiding letting out a shriek of pain.

"Y..You never took first aid, did you? Cause they say not to do that." She says a bit weakly, wincing as he sprays the rest of the foam into the injury.

"Sorry ma'am." He gets into the second chair, noticing the alien numbers and letters. "Also, can I have a bit of help? I don't know what I'm doing."

She sighs. "Tap the icon that looks like a rifle, it'll give you control of the machine guns. My guess would be tap the other gun-looking thing to get the main cannon. Use the stick to aim. I'll drive."

He gives her a quick nod, and the vehicle rumbles off down the streets, navigating them carefully, hunting for the other tanks.

 **POV Staff Sergeant Damien Xavier, Ninth CMA Training Company**

The Sergeant was fairly pleased at the moment. While it was true that most of his two militia platoons, as well as pretty much all but two marines, including himself, were dead, his plan to move as many citizens as possible to the subway had worked fairly well, since the aliens hadn't been able to get past the artificial collapses he had made in the tunnels. So out of a city of one and a half million, he figured at least a third that number were hiding down there. Not good casualties, but damn better than he had expected to get to safety. To top that off, since the timely arrival of the Helljumpers, his small garrison had been reinforced, and the enemy forces seemed slightly more disorganized than they had been. Since he knew that a total of five ODSTs weren't with his forces at the moment, three of which he knew were dead, he hypothesized that one of the two missing ones had killed the leader of the enemy forces.

His mood suddenly soured when he hears a loud smash, before a second loud noise as glass and metal flies everywhere. The marine dives behind a fountain in the center of the plaza, even before he hears the repeating guns on the culprit of the destruction start firing. An alien tank now stood near the edge of the plaza, having smashed through one of the buildings to get here. Around three dozen alien soldiers pour through the opening, finishing off any of his soldiers who were in the open. As he peeks around the corner, he notices three black armored Helljumpers now dead, along with half a dozen of his remaining militia. The marine then quickly pulls his head back as a round hits the fountain, before the enemy infantry run to either side, obviously intending to kill what they thought was the last survivor. But thats when the three ODSTs, a marine and five militia appear on the roofs of the nearby buildings, all lobbing a grenade or two each down into the courtyard, before firing rockets, anti-material sniper rounds, and hails of MA5B and BR55 fire down as well.

Damien chooses now to sprint for the cover of a nearby doorway, while the alien soldiers are falling and writhing as they're gunned down. But the ones with intact barriers charge forward and shield the others, returning fire at the UNSC soldiers, though its clear that the humans have the better position. But the marine sergeant still takes a few rounds in his shoulder from a Turian, the momentum spinning him around, him tripping and tumbling through the doorway regardless. He rolls to the side and gets to cover, before seeing the alien tank raise its main gun and fire, collapsing one of the roofs, and while the humans had scattered, it doesn't save one unlucky ODST, who falls onto the street, and is then torn apart by a hail of gunfire. The rest of the UNSC soldiers find new cover, though it gives the remaining dozen Turians time to seek cover as well.

But though it now seemed to get into a stalemate, with neither force losing anyone else for several seconds, Damien sees the main gun of the tank target another roof, he realizes what he has to do. The sergeant sighs, before standing and lobbing a grenade at the vehicle, which is travelling slow enough that it passes through the barrier and detonates. It appears to disable the weapon, him bringing up his M6 G/GNR, the weapon emitting its customary wine as it charges up. It reaches the usual pitch before spitting out a red beam of energy that passes through the vehicle's barriers and slices through armor. Judging from the secondary explosions, he assumed he hit something vital, though he doesn't get much time to think about it as the machine guns of the armored vehicle target him and fire, the first few rounds punching through his armor and knocking him flat on his back. As the soldier's vision blurs and starts to fade, Damien savors the sound of the tank exploding, along with alien screaming as he lies there, dying. The last thing he sees his his wife and kids, all who he thought had been killed in an innie bombing. But obviously not, since here they were, smiling at him. The man lets out a content sigh, before his body goes limp, and eyes blank.

 ** _Authors Note: _**_**So...I kept my deadline. Anyways, before my customary response bit, I just thought I would like to thank you all for reading so far, and ask a bit of a question. I have four different stories I'm thinking of writing, all of them halo crossovers. So the first is a Halo/DC crossover, the second Halo/MGS V, the third Halo/Elder Scrolls (Skyrim), and the last would be Halo/A Song of Ice and Fire (The book series the show Game of Thrones is based off of, if you didn't know.) Anyways, just vote in the comments, or in a private message to myself. I would likely be alternating between them, releasing a single 3000-4000 word chapter for either story every month. But enough of that for now, I'd just like to say that the next chapter for this will be out somewhere between a week and a month from now. And now, the reviews.**_

 **Majo** **r** **Simi** **_and_ Chris Adair** _ **, thanks. Always nice to see a bit of positive input.**_

 **Spartastic 4,** _ **I appreciate the advice, though honestly, it would probably be too difficult to change, since I'm just used to writing this way. I did try to, but it took about five times the time to correct a chapter as it did to write.**_

 _ **And that's all for now. Talk to you all in the next chapter.**_


	5. C4: Dying Embers

**_Chapter Four: Dying Embers_**

 ** _Taiyuan, Shanxi surface, April 20th, 2525 (UEG Standard Calendar)_**

 **POV: Captain Evelyn Sykes, 13th Shock Troops Battallion**

The woman climbs out of the alien tank, her walking into the plaza, only to be disappointed in the fact that the battle was already over...and that they had taken a severe beating. The only people present were a marine corporal, along with a few militiamen and another ODST. The Helljumper officer lets out a brief sigh as she surveys the destruction, seeing dozens of bodies, alien and human alike, and the wreck of one of the alien tanks. It looked like things had gone fairly badly, though since the place hadn't fallen, she decides to call it a win regardless. She heads over to the ODST and the marine, studying the two, before speaking up. "Well, Corporals...are the civilians safe?"

"Yes ma'am. We didn't let any of them get into the tunnels. The bad news...we're the only forces left in the city. And the aliens still have at least a company of soldiers left, along with a few tanks." The other helljumper replies, though the marine stays silent.

"Well...not quite. Boys!" She calls out, the two militiamen crawling out of the tank. "I have these two as well. And..." She pauses as she hears the sound of two Pelicans approaching, both craft carrying M808 "Scorpion" Main Battle Tanks on the rear of the crafts. "And it seems like we got a couple more tanks of our own. A couple more marines too. Is everyone here fit to fight?"

"We have a few wounded...it would-"

"Send them down with the civvies." She turns and walks over to the two allied aircraft, watching the Scorpions deploy, before seeing a dozen marines come out of each Pelican. "What took you?"

The lead marine walks up to her, sighing. "Funny, Ma'am. But you know unlike you crazy people, we aren't keen on burning up in atmo."

She grins a bit under her visor, gently hitting him on the shoulder. Though her amusement quickly fades. "I know, Sergeant. Now...I saw a big flash...was that our ride off of this planet?"

He nods. "Afraid so. but the pilot tracked a few lifepods."

"Alright then. Sergeant, you're in command here. I'm taking one of those Pelicans and going hunting for those pods. Better we find them before the enemy do."

"Alright, ma'am. Be careful out there. We tracked a few more groups of enemies out there."

"I'll need one of your men too. Preferably a medic, just in case."

He nods, calling a marine over, motioning for them to follow the woman as she steps aboard the ramp of one of the dropships. They do, and the vehicle soon lifts off the ground, Evelyn and the medic both sitting down.

"Pilot, Take me to the location of the first pod. We have a bit of work to do."

"Can do, ma'am. Just relax, and we'll get there soon. ETA eight minutes."

The ODST nods, before doing as suggested and relaxing, giving her body a few minutes to rest and listening to the sound of the medic's music player that they were listening to. The song kind of reminded her of her family, the memories briefly distracting her as they land, the pilot's voice bringing her back to the present.

"Alright, we're here. How much are you paying me for being your personal taxi?" The pilot, a man with somewhat of a scottish accent asks jokingly.

"Absolutely nothing. Sorry to disappoint." Evelyn stands up, and her, along with the medic step off the ramp and immediately notice a long furrow carved into the field, that led up to where the pod was. Keeping herself alert, she slowly walks over, rifle in hand, to the crashed pod. That being said, something felt off to her as she approaches, though she couldn't figure out what. She glances back at the medic. "Be careful. We have no idea what happened since they landed."

The woman then takes a deep breath, before she tries to open the Bumblebee's rear hatch. It doesn't budge. "Fuck. Let's try the emergency release..."

That time, it works, the explosive bolts throwing the hatch off its hinges, barely missing Evelyn, who ducks a moment before. She activates her VISR systems, it highlighting the interior. No bodies, or even weapons were present. "Hey, medic..." She starts to turn, before being pinned against the hull of the craft, right next to the doorframe, one of the aliens grabbing her by the throat. She notices the medic had had their throat slit, and three more of the alien commandos flanked her.

"Well played." She mutters, before she notices that the pelican's hatch had thankfully closed in time, and that the craft had its guns aimed at the group. Though all the one holding the Helljumper does is point a gun at her head. Clearly the message was 'you kill us, we kill her.' Though at present, the alien holding her was looking back at his allies, and at the dropship. A mistake. She reaches around the doorway, feeling blindly for a control panel, before finding one and activating a certain button, clinging to the pod.

It's maneuvering thrusters fire, her managing to slip inside the doorway a moment before the vehicle 'leaps' to the side about fifteen meters, clearing her from the line of fire. And with that, the Pelican opens fire with it's chin mounted gun, mowing down the Turians within a few seconds.

Evelyn steps out from the pod, wondering what the hell had happened to the people inside, before she gets a comm message that consists of clicking noises, at various intervals. After listening for a few moments, she rushes over to the aircraft, which had landed again, and gets inside. "Did you get the message too?"

"I did...I haven't studied up on my Morse code in a while, though."

"I have. The message tells us that they have the Commander with them, and that they're holed up in a nearby village. Apparently all the lifepods have been trying to rendezvous there."

"Doesn't that make our job simple. Alright, strap in. We'll be there in two minutes."

The ODST nods and sits down, doing up the safety harness, before she feels the Pelican accelerate. "In a bit of a hurry now?"

"Well, there's a reason for that. Now that I know the Commander is there, I might get a medal or two for helping evac her."

Evelyn groans a bit, rolling her eyes. "Please tell me you're joking..."

"Um...kind of?"

"You know how much of a dick that makes you look like, right?"

They pause for a few seconds, before somewhat sheepishly replying. "...Right. Forget I said anything. Anyways, we're almost there."

As the Pelican slows down, she undoes the restraints and stands up. "Alright. Is this place under attack?"

The pilot checks the comm channels for a couple of moments, before speaking up. "It seems like you arrived at the tail end of one. They weren't expected this much resistance, I'd guess, since our boys seem to be kicking a fair amount of alien ass down there."

"Force strength?"

"From what I can see, about a dozen aliens still standing. Maybe twice that many of our guys, if not more." The craft lowers altitude until they're only a couple meters off the ground. "I'll slow down for you to drop onto the roof. Then I'll do an attack pass. Ready?"

"Yeah. Just tell me when to jump." Evelyn holds onto a safety handle near the door, waiting patiently.

"Alright. Five...Four...Three...Two...One...go."

She steps off the ramp, stumbling a bit as she lands on the roof, before a pair of marine marksman glance back at her. "What's happening?" The ODST asks, her taking a few steps forward and kneeling next to the two, who were taking cover behind a short wall, occasionally rising to fire.

"We're just trying to pick off the survivors of the attack. Only problem is a marksman they have. They're good...they've already killed two of our guys, and injured about five by this point."

"Do you have a location on them?" She asks immediately, her inching towards the edge.

"Not really. But if you're looking to have a sniper duel, I wouldn't recommend it. Last guy that tried got his brains splattered all over the inside of his helmet."

"Believe me, I'm not. And do you have a rough estimate, at least?"

"Try looking around the grain silos at the eastern side of town. And be careful." The other marksman answers after a moment's hesitation.

Evelyn nods, before she swings herself over the lip and lands on the ground, before sprinting towards a ruined building as a blue tinged sniper round just misses her. Making sure to alter her path, diving and rolling to either side as she moves, she manages to make it there. It was almost a kilometer to the silos they had mentioned, though that didn't bother her too much as she stuck to the interior of buildings and in alleys. Twice, she ran into a hiding alien soldier, though both times she caught them off guard and managed to deal with them quickly and efficiently.

After about a half hour, she gets a message from one of the marines. "Ma'am, we've taken out the rest of them. Is that sniper dead yet?"

She sighs, responding in a quiet, slightly irritated voice. "No. Just tell the others to stay in cover, I will deal with them." With that, she kills the connection, her resuming her hunt. After she reaches the edge of the town, she finds a half collapsed building, her crawling into the ruins and discretely checking through a small hole in the debris. She then tests the wreckage above her, finding it fairly easily movable, before she sighs, briefly glancing through the hole and noticing no more cover in the fifty meters between her and the silos.

Softly cursing under her breath, she decides to offer a bit of bait, quickly forming a plan. She positions her battle rifle to where it looked like someone was aiming, her readying her pistol and a grenade. And then she waits, occasionally shifting the BR around. Soon enough, a sniper round rings out, a shot shattering the scope of her weapon. not waiting a moment, she bursts from the wreckage, noticing a glint among the silos and throwing her grenade, before sprinting.

The explosive detonates as another round intercepts it, though the Helljumper manages to get around one of the silos, and start climbing a ladder, her hearing noises as the alien runs accross the rooftops of the silos, her waiting at the top of the ladder, not climbing into view and pressing herself against the gray metal. A moment later, they peek over the edge, her just reaching up and grabbing onto the rifle with one hand, roughly tugging them. Due to the angle of the silo's top, the already precariously balanced alien is unbalanced and falls past Evelyn, slamming into the ground twenty feet below.

She slides down the ladder, her turning and aiming her weapon at the fallen alien, who lies there, groaning in pain. Though rather than kill them, the ODST just walks over and kicks the rifle from it's grasp, her then kicking it in the face as it starts to rise. "Stay down." She says threateningly, despite the fact that she was sure they wouldn't understand. When they try again to get up, this time grabbing their pistol, her armored boot strikes their jaw with a loud crack, and the alien goes limp.

 _ **Turian Command Facility, Palaven, April 24th, 2525 (UEG Standard Calendar)**_

"You have to be kidding me, Arterius. There is no way a species so primitive that they don't even use eezo wiped out an entire task force with a single cruiser. That is seven frigates and a cruiser. do you honestly expect me to believe an unshielded ship wiped them all out? Its ridiculous."

One of the other three Turians in the room gives the older male a glare, wiping some spittle off of their face before activating the holotable and bringing up a view of the battle over the alien world. "To be fair, one of the frigates was killed by a pair of enemy frigates. And the enemy ship possessed a cannon capable of destroying our ships in a single hit. Along with missiles capable of doing the same with only a few hits. And that's not even counting their nuclear weapons. And ridiculously thick armor. Face it, they have, as Desolas pointed out, far more advantages over our ships, even if they are slower and unshielded."

The Turian, one Desolas Arterius, nods in agreement. "Listen to the Admiral, General. Unlike you, he's smart enough to believe whats clearly in front of him. I saw this all happen. Besides, we crippled their ship as well. It fell into the gravity well of the planet and was destroyed."

The first turian to speak simply growls and retorts "And how would you know this, Desolas? Oh wait, your frigate was hiding at the edge of the system, watching them destroy our task force."

"And what would you have me do? Get myself killed in a fight we couldn't win? Just be glad we have this intelligence on them, thanks to me."

"You insolent piece of-"

"Enough!" The three males all turn to face one who was in slightly different armor, and looked at least a few years older than all of them.

"Primarch, I am sorry I started this argument." The first general begins, before he's cut off.

"I would hope so. Not even our children squabble this much. Now, can we agree on a plan, and stop bickering?"

"Yes, Primarch." All three of the others respond simultaneously.

"Good. Now, Admiral, you first. What would you propose we do?"

The Turian stretches his mandibles a bit as he thinks, before crossing his arms. "Either attempt to make peace with these aliens, or get help from the other Council races. We can't take the risk that they might have fleets of craft like this, and if they do, I think they can beat the Hierarchy's military if we stand alone."

"Noted. Desolas, now."

"I would launch a strike with the Second or Third Fleets, attempt to attack quickly and overwhelm any defenses, then use the relays to speed our invasion across their territory before they can respond. Either that, or launch infiltration forces and attempt to take their worlds or cause chaos in other ways."

"You overestimate them, Arterius. We could just as easily send the eighth, or even ninth fleets to accomplish the same task. Its clear that they don't mass produce these ships, we-"

"Be quiet, idiot. Actually, guards, please take him away and throw him in the brig until he learns to curb his tongue."

A pair of turian Cabals cast a stasis on the mentioned General, before dragging him away, leaving the Desolas, the admiral, and the primarch alone.

"General Arterius, what are their ground forces like?" The primarch asks quietly, sounding a bit tired.

"Surprisingly tough. While of soldiers seem to be better disciplined and equipped, their weapons fire large slugs that do quite a bit of damage to our barriers. and they were dug in, and sneaky and fierce combatants. There were three types I saw. One that seemed more like...maybe a militia than anything else. Soldier to soldier, on open ground, our forces would have little problem with them." An image appears of one of the human militiamen. "The next seem to be career soldiers. Fairly well trained, well equipped, and they were leading the others around when we saw them. I would say that a fight between us and them could go either way, depending on how the soldier was equipped."

"I see. And the last type you saw?"

"Definitely commandos. They came from orbit in some sort of drop pod, and were clad head to foot in black armor. They were seen to have the skills and equipment to fight even our Cabals and commanding officers. Here is a bit of footage." The holo shifts to show a single black armored soldier leap from their pod and battle a squad of Turians, surviving with mild injuries. "Still, they seem to prefer surprises and ambushes, like the rest of this species. In an open battlefield, they could beat our standard infantry, but likely not Cabals. The biotics would kill them, assuming our firepower did not."

"Interesting. Well, I've decided that I will muster the Third Fleet for our next engagement, with the Eighth and Ninth posed to jump minutes later, and immediately head for the Relay. Meanwhile, I will talk to our Councilor, maybe he can get some help from the Asari or Salarians. Meeting adjourned." The primarch walks out, the others soon doing the same, each heading their separate ways.

 **Author's Note: _So, voting's over, I know it probably is over a bit too soon, but well...I wanted to get a new story underway. While both A Song of Ice and Fire and Metal Gear were tied, I decided to go with MGS because I feel like I have more to go with, (and the fact that...well, I wrote first chapters for both, and I liked the MGS one better.) so that'll be released soon. Like...today or tomorrow soon. Anyways, thanks to all those who voted, whether in the comments, or in a PM. Now...I should probably respond to you all, shouldn't I?_**

 ** _So_ Lmao,** _ **I must confess, part of me is sure you're a troll, but I'll reply regardless. Simply put, unless you're meaning Thanix projectiles, which aren't invented yet, no. No they don't. Disruptor torpedoes are launched by fighter craft, and are actually slow and unwieldy, not to mention that they aren't even too powerful. And the Turians don't use fighters, at least, not at this point. And the projectiles from the guns of lets say a cruiser, are low grade compared to a MAC, at least, considering individual shots. And besides, the cruiser in this story sheared through quite a bit of armor in less than a minute, so I'd say I actually was accurate, or even giving the ME universe a buff.**_

 _ **Anyways, if you find me proof of your claims, I'll change my answer. You can expect another chapter for this in two-to-four weeks. And it may have some innies, and our favorite armored soldiers in it. Well...my favorite, anyways. Bye.**_


	6. C5: Reinforcements

**Chapter Five: Reinforcements**

 _ **Odin's Eye, UNSC Point Of No Return, 13:00 Hours, April 23rd, 2525**_

Two men sat around a single table in the dim room, both silent, seemingly waiting for something, or someone. One had graying hair, and looked older than his age. He had the insignia of a Rear Admiral on his collar, and carried himself a bit straighter than his counterpart. The other male had dark hair, and his posture was a bit off, likely from the condition known by UNSC personnel as 'space walk', a result of spending too much time in microgravity. He was a Captain, judging from his rank.

The two were Ned Rich and Aaron Gibson, and both were in charge of ONI special operations. Rich was the Covert Operations Commander of ONI's field operations, in charge of every special operations unit within ONI...save a few. Gibson was in charge of Section Three's Black Operations division. A 'hands on' counterpart to Rich's job.

After a few more moments pass, the door of the room silently slides open, a somewhat withered looking woman walking through. The moment she passes through, the door slides silently shut behind her, once again appearing like a part of the wall. She was sixty four, though she appeared closer to a hundred. Still, anyone who knew who she was would be very cautious, as people who crossed her tended to...disappear. With one exception.

"Ma'am." Both of the men say simultaneously, both moving to stand up as well, before she gestures for them to sit back down, her taking the third chair a moment later.

"Can I assume both of you know why you're here?" She asks quietly, her studying the two. As expected, they nod.

"Yes Ma'am. You want our opinions on that new project...N-7." Gibson answers, Rich just staying quiet.

"Well, that's a start. But it isn't the only thing I wanted to talk about." She pauses briefly, bringing up training records and budget diagnostics for both projects on three tablets, before handing one to each of the men. "But as I said, lets start with that. What's its feasibility compared to the SPARTAN II project?"

Gibson's eyes widen a bit, letting out an almost silent curse. "You could build a new battlegroup for what Halsey's spending, especially on that armor she's developing."

Rich doesn't really react much, taking a drink from a flask he happened to have on him. "The N-7's certainly aren't as effective, though they're a bit cheaper. Still, giving them ODST training, along with that alien technology...it makes each soldier worth a fair amount." The man sighs a bit. "Margaret, what's your take on this? Because from what I see, Spartan's are actually more efficient cost-wise. The gap in expenses just isn't large enough compared to the gap in effectiveness."

The vice admiral glares daggers at him for a few seconds, likely due to him using her name, before the expression disappears from her face. "And about the...other problems with the Spartans?"

Her two subordinates glance at each other, before Gibson reluctantly speaks up. "The N-7 project certinly is far more moral. The trainees are veterans, not children. No clones, no grieving families. And due to the lack of a specific genetic set, there is certainly a larger training group. Five hundred of them, compared to the thirty three Spartans."

"Well, it seems like N-7 will end up being the one mostly used, though I have to wonder, did you only choose to fund this because Natalie Sarrow, the director of the program, happens to have a certain...dislike for Halsey, similar to yourself?" Rich comments after Gibson had finished, glancing at Parangosky.

"Rear Admiral, you know I put business ahead of the people I dislike. If I didn't, Halsey would have been frozen in space by now, victim of an airlock 'accident'." She gives the older man a look that promptly tells him to shut it, unless he wants to end up in an 'accident' like the one she had just described.

He rolls his eyes and takes another drink, before he notices the screen of his tablet change to an image of a ship, one that doesn't resemble any human design. "What's this, Margaret?"

She doesn't answer quite yet, letting the two men look through a quick slideshow of images, all showing various points at the Battle of Shanxi.

Gibson narrows his eyes as he studies an image of the planet, before looking up at the vice admiral. "I recognize the world. It's Shanxi...but I didn't know it had been attacked by aliens."

"No one does but us...and the men and women down on the surface. We received this information at 02:00 this morning, thanks to an ONI sloop that managed to escape the system. I've had it sent to alert CENTCOM, and its estimated that a battlegroup will be arrive in about a week."

"A week? That seems like wishful thinking. It'll be a week before CENTCOM makes up their minds, and probably a month or so until the ships get there. Assuming they follow standard protocol, and travel using slipspace. Ever since the Atlas Incident, the Relays are too dangerous for military vessels to risk." Rich mutters, though the younger man in the room looks slightly curious.

"Atlas Incident? With all due respect sir, what are you talking about? We were all told military ships used slipspace because the relays demagnetized the magnetic coils on MAC cannons."

"Be more careful, Rich." Parangosky says ominously, before she sighs a bit. "No Captain, that was a falsehood we created to cover up an operation that had...unfortunate side effects to the Atlas system. A group of insurrectionists rigged a few fusion warheads to go off when a significant amount of Titanium-A was near."

"Clever. I assume it was meant to go off when a large UNSC warship, like a cruiser or carrier passed through?"

"Correct, Captain. The explosives set off the Relay...and when it detonated, it wiped out over half the planets in the system. Fortunately it was uncolonized, but the blast destroyed several valuable warships. Now...I do hope you won't tell anyone about that little secret, will you, Captain?"

Gibson shakes his head immediately.

"Good. Now, back to the battlegroup." Parangosky brings up several images. "Due to the _Force of Will_ already being lost in the system, CENTCOM will likely arrange for a larger force to be sent. Since a mere frigate did such damage to our new enemies, the nearest warships that aren't busy will be sent. The force will likely consist of the destroyer _Heracles_ , and the frigates _Arabia_ and _Vostok._ Such a force should prove sufficient to fight off any returning alien forces, at least until a larger force can be assembled. In fact, I sent the CO of my sloop with orders to suggest that particular composition."

"That should work...though why only those three? You have forty other ships that you have listed as 'available'. Why not send all of them?" Rich asks quietly, taking another drink when he finishes.

"You think forty warships is necessary? Rich, that would be one of, if not the largest battlegroup in the history of humanity. Why is that necessary to deal with a clearly inferior opponent?" Gibson asks, somewhat incredulously.

"Captain, these are alien ships. For all we know, those could have been the smallest ships they have. I don't intend to underestimate this new threat." He replies evenly.

"Gentlemen, please be quiet. To answer your question Rear Admiral, I only sent three because I believe that it wouldn't be wise to show our full capabilities just yet. However, I took the liberty of sending those ships all to the 23 Librae system under the guise that they were there to eliminate an insurrectionist base. Which isn't a lie, though honestly, that system's fairly quiet right now, and the op can be scrapped at a moment's notice. I even decided to pick a commanding officer for the new 'Battlegroup X-Ray'. His biography is available for you two to look at now."

Both men listen intently, before examining their tablets. The younger man speaks after a lengthy pause. "Preston J. Cole. Thirty six years of service, including several skirmishes with insurrectionist forces...quite a few, actually. Don't get me wrong, his record is impressive, though he strikes me as a bit...unwilling to follow protocols. That and due to his connections with a known insurrectionist, he was disgraced and has been put on desk duty for a while now. Are you sure he's the right person for the job?"

"I am, Captain. He's shown adaptability and his use of unusual tactics may help us against these new enemies. And his current position means he'll be an excellent scapegoat if we lose."

Everyone falls silent for a few seconds, before Rich reluctantly speaks. "Alright, Margaret. I can see there's no arguing with you here. but a standard Rear Admiral won't exactly have the authority to command a fleet that large. And how do you know he'll even accept the offer?"

The old woman smiles a bit. "He will. Especially if he wants to become Vice Admiral Cole. Maybe even higher, if he wins."

Rich raises an eyebrow. "Do you even have the authority to do that? You're only a Vice Admiral yourself. Wouldn't someone at CENTCOM have to decide that?"

She waves a hand dismissively. "They'd take too long. No, I already sent an agent to give him the offer. These plans are already in motion."

"If everything's already been decided, why did you even need us? Besides the special forces bit, obviously."

"Oh, i just know you two are some of the only ones who aren't afraid to tell me if my plans won't work. Now, meeting adjourned."

The three get up and leave the room, one after the other. To the rest of the universe, it would be like none of them had ever been here.

 ** _Hillsborough Class Destroyer CMA Heracles, Shanxi System, 04:00 Hours, May 2nd, 2525_**

"Good work, crew. I think that might be record time for this particular route." A middle aged man comments quietly, giving his crew a bit of a smile. Compared to the standard UNSC uniform, the men and women aboard his vessel likely looked rather plain in the garb of the Colonial Military Authority's naval branch. Still, all of them were willing to fight for humanity, or they wouldn't have came along on this 'volunteer only' mission. Or at least, it seemed that way.

"Transmission coming in from the Vostok and the Arabia. Both are in optimal condition, and will have regrouped with us in about ninety seconds." A young woman comments quickly, her seeming a bit stressed out at the moment.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. And I suggest you all try to relax. CENTCOM thinks the aliens haven't reinforced the system yet. We should be fine."

The rest of his bridge crew nods, though its clear that they don't exactly believe that. Still, everyone seems to be doing the systems diagnostics fore each of their respective duties, and it seems like there's nothing wrong, the crew reporting that all systems are functioning normally.

After a bit over a minute the comm officer speaks up again. "The Arabia and Vostok are holding position a hundred kilometers off of our port and starboard flanks respectively. They want permission to approach the planet."

The Captain nods to her, letting his officer relay the command to the other ships, before the deck shivers a bit beneath their feet, as the destroyer's engines activate. The three ships approach in formation, everyone holding their breath in anticipation as they soon travel around the moon, the planet's orbital elevator soon being visible.

"Lieutenant, establish comms with the militia garrison, if you can." Veredi comments quietly, noticing several chunks of wreckage orbiting the world.

His communications officer nods, her quickly tapping at her controls, eyes briefly widening. "Captain, someone wants a word with you."

He waits a few seconds, before sighing. "Put it over the bridge speakers."

They nod quickly, tapping something, before giving him the thumbs up.

"This is Captain Maribeau Veredi of the CMA Battle Group Four. Who am I speaking to?"

A tired, almost emotionless female voice replies quietly. "Captain Evelyn Sykes, Thirteenth Shock Troops Battalion."

"Ah. Well, Helljumper, how are things on the surface?"

A cold laugh comes through the speakers, causing his crew to anxiously look at each other.

"Helljumper, could you please answer the question?" He calmly asks, though he puts a bit more force into his tone.

"You're all about three days late."

"So...most of you are dead? Captain, stop being vague and answer the damn question. I need specifics."

"Lauf jetzt. Dies wird deine letzte Chance sein." She quickly replies, before shrieking a bit, obviously in quite a bit of pain for some reason. "Go shove a-" The second part had obviously been meant for someone else in the room with her, though its cut off.

Veredi slashes a hand over his throat, his comm officer muting their side of the conversation. "Anyone speak German? What did she say?"

Eventually, his helmsman speaks up. "I'm a bit rusty, sir, but I think she told us to run. That it would be our last chance. I don't know why she would say it in German, though."

The Captain sighs. "I do. The aliens are holding her prisoner. Clearly they know English already, so she switched languages so that they wouldn't understand her." After a few moments of thinking, he speaks once more. "Unmute us."

The young woman nods quickly, their words now being capable of being heard once more.

"Helljumper, are you still there?"

This time, her reply just sounds depressed, her quietly muttering a single 'yes'.

"What do these aliens want? Why have they attacked us?"

"Something about us breaking a law and activating that one Relay. Oh, and using nukes. And a bunch of other crap. As for what they want...they currently want you to power down weapons and engines, and wait to be arrested."

"Seems to me they'll need a lot of firepower to do that."

"Captain, take my advice, or choose to fight. And activate your weapons systems. They'll be jumping in short-" She lets out an agonized howl of pain, her also choosing to let out several select curses. "I hope you kill a lot of these bastards." they pause, this time clearly clenching her teeth and biting back another scream. "Good luck."

The comm cuts out, though everybody starts working immediately, the communications officer telling the other ships to do the same. Which is good, because not thirty second later, the aliens arrive.

"Captain! I'm reading contacts all around us. Twenty corvettes, four frigates and a cruiser."

The ship's CO sighs audibly as the ship shudders, taking the impact of several alien light weapons. "MAC solutions for that cruiser. Tell the Vostok and Arabia to target a frigate each. As for missiles, fire all pods, target the remaining two frigates. Ignore the corvettes for now." The ship bucks again, getting another sigh. "This'll be a long day." He mutters under his breath.

 ** _CMA Headquarters, Taiyuan, Shanxi Surface_**

Evelyn spits a bit of blood from her mouth, before smirking at the three aliens in front of her. "Told you they weren't going to accept it."

The female was tied to a chair in the now mostly destroyed militia headquarters, with her armor pretty much entirely removed from the waist up, her currently only wearing a bra up there. Her skin was covered in burns and bruises by this point, along with a multitude of cuts, though there wasn't too much serious damage, short of a few broken ribs.

One of the aliens (that she had learned were called 'Turians') makes a growling noise, holding a metal rod in their hands, the end of which sparked with electricity. They had been jabbing her with that, along with other torture methods, for a while now. Though...that wasn't why she had cracked. While two of the aliens in the room were Turians, the third was a blue skinned humanoid known as an Asari. They more or less just looked slightly flustered whenever Evelyn had asked them a question, and actually seemed fairly uncooperative with the Turians, which led her to believe that she was being ordered by someone else to help these aliens, and that it wasn't something she wanted to be doing.

Apparently the whole mind meld thing was quite significant in their culture, as Shaia (the asari) pointed out during one of the 'interrogation' she had with Evelyn. Due to it being quite intimate for their species, the Helljumper had equated it to being forced to have sex with someone, and Shaia had pretty much agreed that it was similar. So naturally, since she wasn't a total asshole, the ODST felt a little bit of sympathy for her. It wasn't enough that she wouldn't kill her, if she got the chance, though she behaved less violently when the blue-skinned alien was around.

The less aggressive turian makes a sighing noise, before muttering something in its native language and walking away, which interrupts Evelyn's thoughts, the woman trying her best to look at where they were going. She doesn't get the chance to see anything important, though, as the alien clutching the shock prod jams it into her stomach. This time, she manages to stifle any screams, her just glaring at them for several seconds until they stop. "I can see why I'm tied up, you know. It's because you're afraid a female's gonna kick your sorry ass all the w-"

She's cut off as they angrily pistol-whip her in the jaw, her deciding that silence might be a better strategy, at least for now. The alien then promptly asks Shaia a question, which she assumed was asking what Evelyn had said. After the asari answers, the turian jabs her again, this time in the neck, before muttering something to their translator.

Shaia walks over and kneels next to Evelyn, having a small smirk on her face. "You know, I would suggest you stop pissing him off. I actually kind of like you, and I'd rather not see your head rolling on the floor."

"It's a personal talent of mine, Shaia. I'd hate for it to go to waste." She manages a bit of a grin, though its clear she's in quite a lot of pain. "So how long until they execute me? Since I assume that I'm not useful anymore?"

The alien tilts her head a bit, before indicating the Helljumper's tormentor. "Well, I think that depends how much you aggravate this one. Since the general just gave him permission to do what he wants to you."

The woman rolls her eyes as she hears the turian say something directed at Shaia, making her slightly curious. "So what did he say?"

She sighs, not exactly enjoying delivering this news. "He says that he wants to see you beg for your life. Then he'll return you to the other prisoners. If not...well, I think we both know what he intends to do."

Evelyn surprisingly manages a bit of a chuckle, getting a rather odd look from Shaia.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Simple. I'm not afraid of dying. So please, tell him that I think he's a coward, a weakling, and...well, you know more about his species than I do. Think of a few more insults for me." She smirks and leans back on the chair.

"You are going to get yourself killed." The asari rolls her eyes, before she turns and relays the message, with a few additions.

The male alien immediately tenses up when they hear that, quite obviously pissed off and likely a bit stunned, too. After a few seconds of simply glaring at the human, he tosses aside the shock prod, walking up to her and pressing one of their talons next to one of her eyes, the threat being fairly clear. So rather than apologize or anything remotely similar, Evelyn tilts her head back, and spits in his face.

They growl, quickly wiping it off, before jamming the claw into her eye socket, getting a low groan of pain, though she manages to hold her tongue and glare at them with her good eye. If she was going to die in the next few minutes, she didn't intend to give in first. Soon enough, they pull it out, wiping the blood off of their finger with a nearby rag, before tossing it aside. Though as they study her face again, they actually look mildly impressed, though that doesn't stop them from drawing their sidearm and pressing it to her forehead.

The woman chuckles a bit once more, before closing her good eye, and feeling the blood from her injury slide down her face. She takes a deep breath, and three heartbeats later, she hears a bang.

 _ **Author's Note:** **So, that was chapter five. I must confess that I have lost most of my motivations in this story, though for the sake of the people reading it, I don't intend to give up quite that easily. Still, don't expect quite as many updates for this story compared to**_ **Dogs of War**. **_Now, on to the sometimes fun, sometimes annoying part. Answering questions._**

 **Shadow Walker of Fire** _ **I've considered everything you that you said. Thanks for the ideas.**_

 **Major Sivi** _ **Thanks.**_

 **Artyom-Dreizehn** _ **Okay, I've read all of what you said. And I am grateful people keep bringing science stuff in here, because if I'm being honest...well, I don't have the time to research every little detail, though I do read your comments, so I learn new stuff frequently. As for the rest, I read it, obviously, and I am going to use most of the info. Thanks. As for the nuke comment, they are quite damaging out of atmo, at least at close proximity, due to the vacuum enhanced loads that the UNSC uses (Though you are right, they're better in atmosphere). And I'm not trying to make them afraid of nuclear weapons, the opposite, actually. Since they are currently outlawed by the Council, my main reason for bringing them up was just one more intergalactic law the UNSC broke. In short, one more reason for the war (and the plot) to go on.**_

 **Lycaon 117** _ **Thanks. I'm glad that you guys think the writing quality is decent (which is actually better than I thought it was, though I do have a somewhat low value on my own work.) As for the updating bit, I promise that I will try to continue that trend.**_

 _ **And that's it for now. Talk to you all later. Bye.**_


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